Flexpoint CEO Says MSPs Overlook Back-Office AI

Flexpoint CEO and founder Victor Lopez says MSPs may be looking at AI too narrowly, with much of the channel focused on technician productivity while back-office operations remain overlooked. 

In a conversation with Channel Insider, Lopez discussed how AI could reshape billing, payments, and owner time for MSPs as the industry prepares for another wave of operational change.

Why an outsider view changes the AI conversation for MSPs

You came into the channel from the private equity side rather than from inside an MSP. How does that outsider lens shape the way you see AI adoption playing out in the space right now?

The MSP market has undergone significant shifts — from on-premises to cloud, from the VAR model to recurring revenue. But through it all, the business operations side of running an MSP hasn’t received the same attention. When you ask why, the answer really comes back to who the MSP owner is. 

These are highly technical people who built their businesses around solving complex problems for their clients. That’s their “zone of genius.” Closing the books, forecasting a budget, managing accounts receivable — that’s a completely different skill set, and frankly, it’s not what drew them to the industry in the first place. 

The challenge with AI is similar. When everyone in a market shares the same perspective, certain opportunities are harder to see. That’s not a knock on anyone — it’s just the nature of being inside something. 

An outsider’s perspective is almost necessary to challenge the approach that’s been taken, because the reality is that it hasn’t really moved the needle on the back-office side.

Owner time is becoming a strategic AI use case

Most of the AI conversation in the channel right now centers on service delivery — making technicians faster at the work they already do. What does that framing miss?

It comes back to who you’re talking to. Ask most MSP owners what they’re focused on, and it’s cybersecurity, service delivery, and new technology. 

The back office is the last thing on their mind, and honestly, that makes sense given where their expertise lives. The tools being built reflect those same priorities because that’s where the market’s attention is. It’s supply and demand. But a big part of it is also that you don’t know what you don’t know. 

When you’ve evaluated hundreds of businesses, and you start recognizing patterns around what makes a good business and what doesn’t — across industries, not just MSPs — you start to see that the back office is consistently where the gaps are. 

That perspective is hard to develop from inside the industry alone.

When AI takes work off a technician’s plate, the team gets time back. When it takes work off the owner’s plate, you’ve said something bigger happens. How do you think about that difference?

We think about it as freeing up resources rather than replacing people. Nobody is replacing Johnny or Susie today. What AI does is make it easier for them to do their jobs more accurately and perform better overall. 

But the bigger shift happens at the owner level. One thing I’ve noticed is that MSP owners don’t always value their own time the way they should. I’ll be in a conversation with an owner who says they spend 20 hours a month on billing and invoicing, and they’ve just accepted it as part of running the business. 

But when I ask what their level one tech bills out at per hour and what 20 hours of that costs, suddenly it becomes real dollars. 

Then I ask what they’d do with that time back — not just for the business, but personally. Could you get to your kid’s baseball game? Spend more time with your family? That’s usually when it clicks. 

The best MSPs recognize billing and payments as a strategic lever. Optimize it, get the time back, and put it into something that actually moves the business forward.

AI billing models could create new divides among MSPs

Looking ahead, where do you see AI taking billing operations over the next few years?

The big opportunity people are excited about is the MSP becoming an AI advisor to small businesses — the trusted expert that helps clients actually implement AI across their operations. 

If that plays out, it’s going to introduce some interesting billing dynamics — things like usage-based models, token usage, and new service structures. That’s still a ways off for most MSPs. 

What I think is more immediate is a conversation the industry hasn’t fully started having yet. 

Everyone right now is in the optimistic phase, and I think that optimism is warranted, as AI is going to have a significant impact. 

But it’s going to create haves and have-nots. If you’re not talking to your clients about how to adopt AI, they’re going to find someone who will. 

And when you factor in that many MSP owners are closer to retirement age, some of them have already been through the VAR to MSP transition, and now they’re being asked to transform again. 

That’s a real and honest challenge, and it’s the conversation I think the industry needs to start having openly.